Evighet
by make a quick exit
Summary: We'll always have forever. i!pod shuffle.
1. feather x crow

_Disclaimer: _No, I don't own Warriors. [if i did, Feathertail wouldnt have died, Nightcloud would never have been created, Leafpool would get with Reedwhisker instead, and Dovepaw would have a WAY cooler power -grumblegrumble]

ANYWAY, this is a Warriors iPod Shuffle Challenge cos i got too bored one day & felt like doing this P:

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_**&&crowpaw x feathertail {steamshipping}**_

**tim mcgraw // taylor swift**

He's in the mountains again, sitting beside her grave. And, although he doesn't know it, she's right there beside him, crying softly to herself as she watches him silently wail to the unforgiving mountains. She wishes so badly to touch him, to feel his dark grey fur mix with her own lighter silver fur, and tell him she's fine, she's okay!

But, you know what the scary part is?

His screams, gently bouncing off the bleak grey rocks, are not screams of grief. They're wails of remorse, regret; wails asking for her forgiveness. Because, even though he's sitting right next to the first cat who ever loved him and bothered to look right into his heart, he's not thinking about her. He's thinking about another cat, another cat who loved him and he loved back. A cat he may have loved more than her.

So he raises his eyes to the cloudy sky, wondering when the storm will finally break and release the thunder he so badly wants to drown out his wails. And only when he feels a particularly warm breeze brush his ear, and hears a painfully constricted voice whisper to him:

_ "It's alright, Crowfeather."_

and tastes his mournful caterwhaul on his tongue, is when he realizes he never needed to be forgiven in the first place.

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**a/n; **it's really short ;A; but watever, theyre all pretty short x]


	2. blue x oak

_Disclaimer: _Warriors isnt mine - that piece of genius belongs to the Erins

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_**&&bluefur x oakheart {royalshipping}**_

**no surprise // daughtry**

Oakheart strains his eyes to follow Bluefur's form through the tree trunks and ferns and bracken thickets. The RiverClan warrior wants to imprint her very image upon his mind. But that desire is eclipsed fully by his longing for her to stay by his side.

Once the ThunderClan she-cat had really disappeared, Oakheart slumps to the ground. He welcomes the hot black wave of grief as it crashes over him, but Bluefur's electric blue eyes won't stray from his mind. The red-brown tom lets out a slow, deep wail from his throat, and he glances up at the grey predawn sky.

"What do I do without you?" he wonders wretchedly.

The only reply is the murmur of the greenleaf breeze.

Right now, Oakheart hates the idea of returning to camp. He refuses to deal with hunting and patrolling and chatting idly. He doesn't want to pretend that last night never happened. He doesn't want to forget that Bluefur and him never happened.

But then Oakheart's mind tumbles over backwards.

Why should he be sad? Bluefur and him _did _happen. Wasn't she what he had been pining for for the last StarClan-knows-how-many moons? His desire has been fulfilled; he should be brimming over with happiness. Instead, here he is, wailing his sorrows to the birds like some lost kit.

Besides, he knew this would happen. It had been the first clear realization Oakheart had had during his wild obsession with the ThunderClan warrior. _This will never work-out, mouse-brain. You'll just both be hurt. _He had never really cared for that until now; when she was actually leaving him and never coming back.

"I don't care," Oakheart finally decides [rather proudly, I must say]. "I still love you, Bluefur." The red-brown warrior smiles at the image he conjures up in his mind: the one of the dark blue she-cat glaring at him as he practically hears her spit _". . .idiot!"_

With that, he stalks off, holding his head high like all RiverClan cats do.

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**a/n; **I really like this couple :D


	3. sand x fire

Disclaimer:it's a fanfic people, do i have to explain?

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**_&&fireheart x sandstorm {gingershipping}_**

**hot 'n cold // katy perry**

Sandstorm can not _stand _what she's seeing right now. The way that stupid tom's eyes are roving over the body of _his own apprentice_, and how he's doing it right there in front of the whole Clan to see_. _Sure, the young grey cat isn't his apprentice anymore---not after what happened on the Thunderpath---but she's still at least a dozen moons younger than him.

And that's not even the irritating part!

Hadn't his eyes been following _Sandstorm _around the clearing just yesterday? Hadn't he been sharing his fresh-kill with her, sharing tongues with her? Wasn't he praising her and complimenting just this morning on the dawn patrol?

Sandstorm can't fathom that stupid tom's logic as she watches his brilliant green eyes follow Cinderpaw---_his former apprentice, the _medicine cat _apprentice, for StarClans' sake!_---and her movements around Yellowfang's den. And, she has to admit, with her thick, ash-grey pelt and sky-blue eyes, Cinderpaw is cute. But she _is _the medicine cat apprentice. And Fireheart has no right to go padding after her, not after the obvious affection he had for Spottedleaf.

Sandstorm feels the anger welling up inside her belly, and she has half a mind to march up to that stupid tom and block his way to Cinderpaw. But the pale ginger tabby bottles up the rage filling her from tail to claw-tip, watching as the moron slips past the rock cleft.

He has to make up his mind _someday_.

. . .right?


	4. holly x cinder

_Disclaimer: _the lovely cinderheart and hollyleaf belong to the Erins. jayfeather is MINE D [lol jk he's Erin spawn too]

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_**&&hollyleaf x cinderheart {recycleshipping}**_

**my immortal // evanescence**

Oh, hello, Jayfeather; what are you doing out here at this hour? Collecting herbs by the light of the moon? Really, you shouldn't be so uptight about things. But, anyway, you're out here to tell me something, right? What is it?

. . .oh. Hollyleaf.

. . .my, aren't the stars bright, Jayfeather? She's probably among them right now, feeling like she's on top of the world. But, isn't it a pity, Jayfeather, that she's not among _us _right now. Even with what she did---that night---she was still the brightest apprentice in the Clan. Even with the fact that she took _her own life_, she still had her future at her claw tips. She could've been Clan leader someday, Jayfeather, if only it wasn't for---well, don't you know that already?

And what she did that night, wasn't it for the sake of the Clan, of her own morality? Yes, she had an obsession: an obsession of the warrior code, of perfection. But what Clan leader _doesn't _have those dreams? Isn't perfection a means of peace, Jayfeather? You don't have an argument against me.

She was a beautiful cat, you know. Gleaming green eyes, filled to the brim with intelligence; sleek black pelt kept tidy day and night; ideal muzzle, long and elegant; and a lean-muscled body of infinite capibilites. Yes, she could've been something, if only she could have cured her fragile mind.

And you don't know how many times I tried to do that for her; how many times I was there to let her scream into my fur, how many times I found her just lying in the mud in the middle of the forest, how many times I woke up to find her clawing at an invisible enemy in her sleep? She was my caterpillar, Jayfeather, my precious caterpillar who needed me to protect her until she became a butterfly. I failed to protect her, Jayfeather, I failed. . .

But, did I love your sister?

. . .yes, I did.


	5. sorrel x hawk

_Disclaimer: _no matter how much i love this shipping, they dont belong to me :[

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_**&&hawkfrost x sorreltail {heroinshipping}**_

**crushcrushcrush // paramore**

The dream was back again.

Sorreltail padded silently through the dank, muggy forest, her pawsteps muffled by the springy ferns and squelching mud. She had no idea why she was here; no inclination whatsoever. She was still a very young cat, with a promising future ahead of her and a cat to walk beside her the whole way.

The small tortoiseshell paused in the shadows, peering through the ferns at a clearing carpeted with wilted, brown grass. _Brackenfur, _she whispered to herself, _Brackenfur, come save me! _

For, lounging rather placidly on a smooth boulder, right before Sorreltail's wide eyes, was the RiverClan warrior Hawkfrost. The _dead _RiverClan warrior Hawkfrost, would be more accurate. Sorreltail's instincts nudged her backwards, propelling her further into the shadows, but she resisted. The brown-and-white tabby was close enough that he would hear the rustles she would make with movement. So, Sorreltail crouched there, until she nearly yowled in surprise at the sound of Hawkfrost's deep, vibrating voice.

"Are you going to come out of there or not? You'll waste your visit with me hiding in the shadows like that," the tomcat said casually, closing his icy eyes and running a huge white paw over his ear.

Sorreltail didn't _want _to move, but her legs thought otherwise, taking purposeful steps across the clearing up to Hawkfrost's side.

"Take a seat, my dear, I won't bite you," he coaxed, smiling a bit.

Sorreltail heard her heart beating faster and faster as she stared, challenging, into Hawkfrost's pale blue eyes. Without removing her gaze from his, she slid into a poised sitting position, and left it at that.

And the next thing she knew, Sorreltail was on her back and Hawkfrost was in her face. Her heart was beating ridiculously fast, her blood was practically roaring in her ears, and Sorreltail was beginning to lose herself in the icy pools of his eyes. She gathered her strength in her back legs, thrusting him off her. Hawkfrost landed with a grunt on all fours.

"You know I won't leave it at that," growled Hawkfrost, lunging at her again. But the traces of a smirk were evident in the glower he trained on Sorreltail. "You'll keep coming back again and again and again, Sorreltail. And we'll fight again and again and again---"

"Because you keep _making _me!" she yowled, baring her teeth at him. "If you would just---if you would just stop calling me those stupid pet names and touching me like only a mate would and making my head feel dizzy and making me _come back to you_. If you would just---just _stop _it! But this---all of this---was never my choice, _I never wanted to help you_!"

"Ah, but didn't you?"

Sorreltail froze, her gaze locking with his as he strode up to her. First, he ran his muzzle along her shoulders, along her flank, along her cheek. His scent was as cold as his eyes, she realized. Then he wound his broad-shouldered form around her, his dark brown tabby stripes meshing with her tortoiseshell splashes. Sorreltail found herself leaning into him, sighing his name, embracing his touch. Her last bit of reality was slipping away, between the stripes of his pelt, into the depths of his eyes, lost in the sick euphoria she couldn't let go of.

"St-stop. . .please. . ._Hawkfrost_," she whispered, nuzzling his muzzle despite her words.

"You can't resist me," he breathed in her ear.

And she awoke in the warriors' den with his scent clinging to her pelt.

**_

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a/n; ITS MEH OTP D_**


	6. tiger x dove

&&dovepaw x tigerheart {invertshipping}

**secret valentine // we the kings**

Dovepaw stepped into the moonlit clearing hesitantly, her small paws a bit clumsy in the tall grass. Her eyes flicked from shadow to shadow almost hopefully, until she noticed this herself and checked her manners into place. Her young face adopted a cool, unemotional frown as she picked her way under the shade of a tall pine tree. She wrinkled her nose against the smell that tickled her senses, a ruddy, moist scent that clung thickly to a tree a few fox-lengths away. She could scent it even past the sharp, cold snow falling around her.

"Don't make that face, Dovepaw; ThunderClan doesn't smell quite as good as catnip, either."

The grey she-cat's head snapped up at that. The ferns across the clearing had parted to reveal the shadows of the pine trees, and, as Dovepaw watched, the cat she had been dreading to meet tonight emerged. He padded slowly up to her, calmly at first---then, as he neared, she noticed how his golden eyes developed a mischievious glint and a crooked smile tilted his mouth. His muscles moved smoothly underneath his dark brown pelt, causing his tabby stripes to bend and roll. His tail flicked from side-to-side behind him, straight up in the air, mirroring the mood in his eyes.

He came so close that Dovepaw could feel his breath against her cheek.

"Hello."

So close that she could feel his voice vibrating through her to her stomach. It cast out the anxiety building in her gut, and replaced it with a gentle fire that lit her eyes the slightest bit.

"How are you?" she mewed timidly.

"Fine."

A pause that both of them could taste. She averted her eyes from his, and backed up against the tree's trunk. He moved away, turning around and around in the tall grass until there was a sort of nest gouged out. Tigerheart beckoned to her with a small, reassuring smile as he settled down, and lifted his tail to her when she didn't move.

"I won't bite," he meowed, and Dovepaw noticed that the glint in his eyes hadn't disappeared. "I just want to feel you while we're still together."

The words struck something in the young she-cat, and she pressed herself up against his strong shoulder, admitting herself to a soft purr as his tail wound around her.

"The snow's beginning to fall faster," Dovepaw remarked, raising her eyes to the blank canvas of the sky.

"It is," was his reply.

And then she looked up at him, and took a good stare into his eyes, rejecting the temptation to drown in their golden intensity and forcing herself to confirm whether her notion was, in fact, true. The answer comforted her, and made the growing warmth in her stomach spread to the tips of her claws and the very ends of the fur on her tail.

Yes, this scared him too. She noticed that now, as she saw how his knees shook, how he pawed the ground gently, how, as she met his gaze again, he trembled on the spot. She found herself holding his eyes, meeting him square on, voicing her notes.

"You're so scared, Tigerheart."

As he indignantly began an answer, she cut him off.

"But, that's alright. I am too---StarClan, I am. I think we can make it, though. Right, Tigerheart? You promised me you'd protect me, on the beaver patrol; all the time you said that. We'll be okay. Of course we will..."

By this point she was whispering into his shoulder, as they laid in the shadows. They crouched together against the cold, and Dovepaw thought for a moment how strong he was, and how much she trusted him. She thought if she should trust this cat---this cat who was the grandson of Tigerstar, one of the most feared warriors of all time---but, realized quickly that she already did. She trusted him with her life, and this fact quieted the whimpers rising in her throat even before Tigerheart spoke, breathing into her ear. She could hear his emotions shaking in his voice, and she closed her eyes.

"We'll be okay, Dovepaw. I'll be here for you, even when everyone else isn't."


	7. heather x lion

_Disclaimer: _Warriors ain't mine, beeyotch.

Recently, I've found that I actually like this shipping. It's way cuter than Cinder/Lion [no offense to any of you shippers out there; just my opinion], but I always thought that Ice/Lion was the best of all. But, noooooooo, my mind likes to flip itself, apparantly. Today while listening to the song below, these two came to mind and wouldn't leave. So I decided it's time to update Evighet, which hasn't been touched for like two weeks -_____-" And dont even get me started on S,S....

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_**&&heathertail x lionblaze {darkshipping}**_

**if we ever meet again // timbaland ft. katy perry**

"We can't meet anymore."

Her eyes are glass. She can feel it; she can feel the shocked tears welling up behind them. But they don't spill over yet. Instead, she hears her own voice, shaky and fragile as it follows an instinctive train of thought.

"What do you mean?"

He's not serious. He's playing. He's acting as DarkClan's deputy. He's adding some plot to the game. He's just joking. He's not serious.

_Is he?_

"We just can't."

His amber eyes, as golden as the sun reflecting off his flame-licked pelt, bore into her own soft, clouded blue orbs, probing them for a deeper reaction than just blank stupidity. Shaken by his gaze, she scrambles for a hold on her rampant thoughts and mouth.

"But we're having fun," she whispers desperately, as she sees her tears begin to blur her vision. That bright, welcoming smile she had all ready for him is still frozen on her face, no longer happy---just shocked and glassy now. "Why do we have to stop? We're not hurting anyone..."

She tries to hold his stare, trying to find some reason in there just like he's doing with hers. But he rips them away from her and plants his gaze on his large paws. His voice comes clenched, like he's gritting his teeth during a tough battle.

"I think you're great, Heatherpaw," he says slowly, forcefully. "But you need to find someone in your own Clan..."

_Someone else? There is no one else. No one else has pure-golden eyes...no one else has fur the color of sunlight...no one else can share these tunnels with me...no one else can be DarkClan's deputy...no one else can make me feel like this._

_ There's only you._

"....I need to be the best warrior I can be, and I can't do that if I'm here every night."

This makes her wince openly. His reason makes sense---and makes her feel like a kit. She should be worrying over her training and warriorhood too, but...he was more imporant. However, reason is slipping away into her conflicting emotions.

"It doesn't have to be _every _night," she murmurs dejectedly, inwardly wailing like a kit.

His stare flashes back to her, if only for an instant. But then he skitteres away, to the "leader's rock" over her shoulder.

"I was looking out for you in the battle today," he meows rather bluntly, and she flinches again as his voice echoes harshly in her ears. "What if you'd been in that patrol?"

Is that what he'd been worried about? Meeting her in a fight? She jumps at a chance to salvage something from this argument.

"You could have fought Breezepaw or Harepaw or---"

He startles her by overriding her mew with his raised growl, "Battles aren't that simple, and you know it! I can't pick and choose. I have to defend my Clan. I can't be worrying about you all the time." Despite the snarl, though, she can almost hear the same kind of desperation in her own voice.

The grief and regret scratch her across the face, right then. The tears really do brim over then, and he chooses _now _to look at her, just when she's letting herself drown. Through the pain, she can at least manage a cracked mew.

"That's it, then?"

"Yes."

And the way he doesn't hesitate for a _moment_, the way his voice just simply dismisses her with a single _word_, is what sets her off. The word sparks the old, tempermental Heatherpaw back to life, and the miserable, sorry Heatherpaw right now backs away without a word. She whips her head up to stare defiantly into his cold eyes, and actually savors the warmth of the anger in her blood.

"Fine!" she growls. "I understand now."

She gets to her paws, stalking towards the embracing shadows and frosty night air. But before she reaches the exit, she pauses and glances over her shoulder at him. She suddenly feels the need to end it all with a scathing scar. She stares into his cold amber eyes---no longer compared to the sun or "pure" gold---and curls her lip into her best snarl.

"I just hope being a warrior is worth it!"

* * *

She springs away, fast as a rabbit, across the moorland, towards home, towards friends, towards sweet, blank sleep. The stars blur into the grey clouds overhead, and the moon lights her way even when it's only a sliver. The anger and pain propel her legs faster and faster, urging her away from the harsh echoes of his voice, until her claws are torn just as much as her heart. Finally, when the moon has long since reached its peak and disappeared below the horizon, she collapses near the stream, and growls at the fact she just went in a circle. ThunderClan's forest is staring at her intently from across the stream, and the mere thought that he's in there somewhere makes her want to get to her paws and run again.

But her legs wobble too much when she tries to get up, and consequently won't hold her up for long.

"Fox dung...!" she growls through gritted teeth as she flops onto her belly. She narrows her eyes deep into the forest, the image of him sleeping soundly surfacing in her mind. "Damn you..." she mutters, shifting her head away.

Silently but quite truthfully, Heatherpaw makes a vow.

_The next time we meet, Lionpaw, I won't be the same cat you left. I'll be a warrior. I'll be smarter, older. I'll be stronger._

She glances out of the corner of her eye at ThunderClan's forest again, mentally zooming in on his sleeping face. She smiles, unconsciously, quietly, but quickly checking herself with a determined growl.

_And I won't love you._

_

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_

**a/n; **yeah, yeah, yeah crappy ending i know.....but i really had no idea how to end it X___x oh, and that "damn you" from Heatherpaw is in there cos think none of the wimpy Warriors curse words conveyed her anger enough[/explanationfail]


	8. ice x lion

_Disclaimer: _Warriors = Erin Hunter

_Warning: _For mildly mentioning rape.

This song/shipping = epic win -ignores what she said in the last update-

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_**&&icecloud x lionblaze {sorbetshipping}**_

**dance in the dark // lady gaga**

**So innocent, so sweet, so fragile, so kind, so perfect....You're beautiful...**

_Be quiet..._

**You have a golden future...**

_Please...stop talking..._

**You'll make an excellent queen. Look at Ferncloud, for example...**

_SHUT UP!_

"---Icecloud?"

She gasped, a sharp intake of breath that stabbed at her lungs, and turned around to find her brother, Foxleap, staring worriedly at her through the warriors' den's entrance.

"Um, yeah?" she asked, blinking and pawing at her ear distractedly. The whispers were ebbing away, if only slowly, but her ears still twitched with their cold breaths. She was hoping she was on the dawn patrol, for once, just to feel the sun on her back.

She was granted her wish, fortunately, as Foxleap answered.

"Brambleclaw's put you on Lionblaze's hunting patrol."

She sighed---to seem bothered by this like any other warrior, to seem normal---and trudged out into the muddy clearing. She tried to ignore the soggy feeling on her pawpads and tailtip, resisting the urge to give even a lick to that clump of mud clinging to her shoulder. She wanted to keep the whispers and murmurs away as long as she could.

"Icecloud!" Mousewhisker beckoned to her by thumping his tail on the ground beside him. The grey-and-white tomcat was sitting in the usual crowd around Brambleclaw as he sifted through the warriors to catergorize them into patrols.

Icecloud froze in her tracks at the sight of him---he was grinning. It was _that _grin, _that _grin that made her body tremble, _that _grin that had her senses screaming in her ears to start running; start running and never stop. It was _that _grin that said 'I'm-not-assigned-to-a-patrol-yet'.

And Icecloud knew only too well what he wanted to do to her with his free time.

It had started out innocently enough: a kithood crush, of course, that had miraculously bloomed into friendship when Mousewhisker padded up to her with a piece of fresh-kill in his jaws. She was only an apprentice then; a stupid, stupid, _stupid _apprentice that couldn't read the unhealthy hunger deep in his pale amber eyes.

The first time he had commited---the _act_---with her, she listened to the sweet nothings he purred in her ear, and muffled her pained cries into the dirt. It _hurt, _StarClan it _hurt_! was all she could think. She never wanted to do it again, she told Mousewhisker later, after her warrior ceremony.

But that didn't stop him from simply _forcing _her.

Icecloud winced openly at the grin on his face, and swerved her pawsteps to take her next to Brightheart. No one knew about their relationship, and Icecloud hoped desperately to keep it that way. If someone knew...StarClan, she didn't know what she'd do. The whispers would plague her ears day and night, lilting sweetly, but carrying malicious threats subliminally.

Lionblaze led her patrol out of the camp, and Icecloud trailed dismally behind Sandstorm. Almost as soon as they approached the lake's shore, the ginger senior warrior shot off into the brambles on a squirrel's heels. Icecloud tipped her muzzle into the air, and caught a whiff of vole to her left. She slouched into her hunters' crouch, sprang sloppily at it, and had to give it two blows before it died.

As she dragged her paws back to a pine tree growing at the shore, Lionblaze waved his tail, beckoning her over. He looked concerned, Icecloud noticed faintly. The older warrior had his forehead crumpled at her and his amber eyes narrowed. His golden tabby pelt shimmered lightly in the morning sun, and seemed almost as bright as Icecloud's own pure-white coat.

He sat her down against a tree's rough bark; his golden eyes were gentle. "What's wrong with you today, Icecloud? You usually race Sandstorm for the most fresh-kill. I know it's early for a hunting patrol, but at least try to wake up a bit." The corners of his mouth were turned down.

And as Icecloud stared at his frown, at his broad shoulders and amber eyes, she began to imagine his golden tabby stripes replaced with grey splotches; his bright fur glowing to white. Suddenly, she was staring at a looming Mousewhisker, with his eyes dark and intending.

There was a scream. A blood-curdling, icy screech that made her legs give way. A heart-shaking shriek that she didn't realize came from her own throat.

She made to bolt around Mousewhisker, but he caught her with a paw and trapped her against the tree while standing on his hind legs. Icecloud stared up at him, the fear blinding her as her instincts took over. She clawed at his stomach viciously, the panic thrumming through her veins.

"_Get away, get away, get away, GET AWAY!" _

But Mousewhisker outweighed her, and pinned her down to the ground underneath his bulk. Icecloud choked on her terrified caterwhauls as her instincts noticed his scent. Icecloud turned her head to the side, closing her eyes.

"Please...don't hurt me again...," she whimpered.

She felt Mousewhisker get off her.

_He'll never listen._

She felt him turn her over onto her stomach.

_He's going to hurt me._

She felt a _gentle _and _comforting _tongue rasp over her ear.

Icecloud shot up at the soft touch, swinging her head round for whomever had done it. Because it surely hadn't been Mousewhisker. Of course it couldn't. As she spun around, she found him standing in front of her, the sun causing him to be nothing more than a silhouette. But she could still make out his frozen amber eyes, which seemed somehow...deeper...than they were before. And his pelt, which had been white-and-grey patched before was---golden?

Icecloud's mouth fell open. This wasn't Mousewhisker. Not at _all_.

"Icecloud..." Lionblaze took a hesitant step forward, and then another and another, until she could again make out the gentle and concerned expression he had.

"I--I'm so sorry," she mewed hysterically, the tears slipping silently out of her blue eyes. "I'm so _sorry_, Lionblaze...I--I thought...you were---"

"It doesn't matter." Icecloud jumped as Lionblaze brushed his cheek against hers. "What matters," he whispered, "is that I will _never _hurt you, Icecloud."

Icecloud shivered, but not from fear. For just a moment, she could forget about Mousewhisker, everything he'd ever done to her---and feel safe.

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**a/n; **....I just completely ruined my image of generic Mousewhisker D:


	9. ash x squirrel

woah...when was the last time i updated this...? well this is old but i rediscovered it and decided to upload!

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**_&& ashfur x squirrelflight {shattershipping}_**

**how to save a life / the fray**

"Ashfur...Ashfur, just _listen_!"

"Listen to _what_, Squirrelflight? Will you say 'I'm so sorry' or 'StarClan needed us to be together'? Because they _didn't_, if you'd...if you'd been mine the secret would've been water under the bridge, you know it just as well as I do. StarClan, Squirrelflight, I loved you, why _Bramble-_"

_"Don't ever say his name!"_

Twilight blue meets forest green.

"Why not?"

( quiet, sad, threatening - )

"Be...because...you'll-you'll ruin everything, won't you? You plan on telling, right? So...when I hear his name, I don't need it to be from the mouth of such a-"

''-traitor? Who are _you_, of all cats, to plague me as a traitor? If anything, you lied, Squirrelflight, to your family, to three cats who never did a wrong in the first place. You're the traitor, not me, you betrayed everything StarClan _gave _you, while they left me..."

Claws dig into the earth, breaths become labored.

"...what happened to us, Ashfur?"

"You broke my heart, remember."

"But...but you didn't need to take it so far! You saw Whitewing's glances at you, didn't you? But, in the end, even she gave up on you and went to Birchfall! She could've...oh, I don't know, she could've _loved _you! Why did it have to be me, of all cats? I already said I didn't return your feelings, but you just sat in the corner and yowled your grieves like a kit! Or, at least, we could've still been _friends..._I would've listened to you, Ashfur, no matter what. I would've listened to everything you had to say, about me and Brambleclaw. Because you know what? I cared about you. I wanted to stay friends, so I would've accepted you without a word, but you _ran away _and ignored everyone who tried to help.

"Ashfur, I always loved you. I always wanted you-"

"But not in the way I wanted you! I loved you so much it _hurt_, Squirrelflight, I thought that if I couldn't have you...

"I - I thought, _then I'll just take someone away so there's room for me._"

"...A - _Ashfur_ - "

"Th - that's so smart, right, Squirrelflight? Hawkfrost helped too, you know, he was such a _genius_, more so than me, even! And then Brambleclaw killed him. Squirrelflight, why is your mate a murderer? Hawkfrost was smart and nice and _great_, so much better than his half-brother - Brambleclaw killed his half-brother! I wonder why no one ever looks at it that way, and goes 'a cat that killed his kin, doesn't deserve to be deputy, no, no, no...' Especially Firestar, he should really choose better subordinates, don't you think, Squirrelflight?"

And then paws thump upon the ground and the grey-flecked tom is suddenly on his back with the flame-pelted she-cat pinning him down, glaring hard at him with sad, angry green eyes. The grey-flecked tom just stares back through dull dark blue eyes, smirking faintly as the she-cat cuffs him hard over the ears with her one white paw. She sounds choked and furious, sobs hitching her voice so that it barely meets his pricked ears.

"Ashfur, what happened to you?"

The grey-flecked tom can hear heartbeats drone by in his ears, and he doesn't answer right away, just looks up at her and once again notes what a beautiful shade of green they are. The same eyes of the cat Hawkfrost tried to kill with a fox trap, the same eyes a small black cat stared at him, horrified, with, flames reflected in the grassy orbs as the secret he'd tell fell out and stopped his heartbeat, and the same eyes that never once looked as sorry as they should have when they murdered his dreams and ingnited the revenge they rightfully deserved.

"You broke my heart, remember."


End file.
